


one hundred hours to rearrange the stars

by AnimeBasketballer



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akechi Goro Attends Shujin Academy, Akechi Goro Leads the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Nonbinary Persona 5 Protagonist, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Roleswap, Royal Trio centric, Severe Identity Issues, Trans Akechi Goro, for shiho and any mentions of goros mom there wont be anything graphic, for sumire, idk how much itll come up in the fic yet but its important to me that you know, mentions of the interrogation room scene
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:13:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27671852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnimeBasketballer/pseuds/AnimeBasketballer
Summary: Goro Akechi wasn't a hero, and he refused to pretend to be one. But after being thrust into another world, gaining supernatural abilities, and teaming up with a gymnastics prodigy and an eccentric teen detective; he found himself gaining the title of Phantom Thief.  He couldn't say he anticipated his life going in that direction; but now that he had been given the chance to punish some of the many adults that abused their power, he wouldn't pass up the opportunity to make his mark on the world.No matter how high the stakes got.orA roleswap AU featuring the Royal Trio as the original Phantom Thieves, and Goro as their leader.
Relationships: Akechi Goro & Amamiya Ren & Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi, Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 5
Kudos: 55





	one hundred hours to rearrange the stars

**Author's Note:**

> There are so many good roleswap AUs at the moment that it inspired me to write my own! I've been thinking about the Royal Trio a lot recently and I was going to write an entirely different platonic AkeSumi fic, but then I realised I can do whatever I want and no one can stop me so here is my self indulgent Royal Trio are the founding members fic that is also a roleswap.
> 
> I have this fic roughly planned out, but I don't know if I'll split it up into a few different fics with one or two palaces in each, just to make it less daunting to write. I'll see how it goes for now. Also fair warning I'm the slowest writer alive lmao but I'll do my best to update semi-frequently. 
> 
> Ryuji and Ann will be involved in the Kamoshida arc don't worry!!! I will not take that away from them!!!
> 
> Anyway thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy even if my writing is a bit messy :0 I'm lineheck on tumblr, come say hi if you feel like it <3
> 
> Title is from Moonsickness by Penelope Scott!
> 
> Edit: i you want to see what Goro's thief outfit looks like i did a messy doodle here https://lineheck.tumblr.com/post/635516030872092672/very-quick-and-very-messy-doodle-of-the-designs   
> Jokers blackmask outfit is also there but that wont come into play for a while yet

_The betrayal didn’t hurt like he thought it would. He had known it was coming, even if his team hadn’t, but he had still expected it to sting. Now though, as he sat in the interrogation room beaten, bruised, and awaiting his execution, he couldn’t help but feel oddly excited. Joker may have won this round, but the game wasn’t over just yet. Not while he still had cards left to play._

_He could still turn it around._

_He would make it out of there, with or without the other thieves_ ' _help._

___________

It didn't take very long for Goro to decide that Shujin Academy was one of the worst schools he had ever been to.

First off, he had been late on his first day, and it wasn't even his fault for once. That had gotten him in immediate trouble, which was the last thing he needed considering his situation. Then, some fucker leaked basically everything about him, from his last expulsion to his mother's _death,_ to the entire school, making him an even bigger target than he already was as a transfer student. Then there was that second-year who had inexplicably taken an interest in him. Despite it only being his second day at the school, he had managed to run into the other boy four whole times, and it was only a matter of time before he ran into him again that day. He was a teen detective or something, Goro didn’t know, but everyone at the school seemed to worship the damn ground he walked on. Why he had taken an interest in him specifically, Goro had no idea, but it was fucking annoying. Maybe he was the one that leaked his past. That would explain it.

Even without all that there was the creepy fucking gym teacher who seemed to have made it his life mission to get Goro expelled as quickly as possible to “protect the school’s reputation.” Goro wouldn't even care, he would’ve fucking loved to be out of that dump in fact, but Shujin was literally the last school that would take him and if he didn't want his future to become even more dire than it was already, then he needed to keep his head down.

Oh, and there was also-

“Senpai! There you are!”

Yeah. That.

Goro kept waking, fully intending to ignore her. However, Kasumi Yoshizawa was nothing if not determined. She caught up to him quickly, slowing down when she did so she could walk side-by-side with him.

“Oof! You sure walk fast, Akechi-senpai!”

Kasumi was a chipper girl, about two years his junior, and that was about as much as he knew about her. They’d met by chance; they just both happened to be a little lost on their first day of school and had decided to walk together. And then…some stuff happened. Some stuff that had Kasumi treating him like her best friend, and not the violent delinquent the rest of the school saw him as. It was infuriating.

“Was there something you wanted?”

Despite his rude tone, Kasumi seemed to perk up as he addressed her.

“Yes! If it's alright, then I wanted to talk about yesterday-"

Right. Of course she did. What else could she possibly want to talk about? He sighed deeply.

“Fine. If we must. But I don't have time right now. Meet me on the roof at the end of the day.”

Kasumi's face dropped slightly. 

“Oh, but isn't going on the roof against-"

“Against school rules yes,” Goro drawled, “but I would prefer if we were _not_ overheard talking about fantasy castles, and...whatever those powers were, and I assume you would too. Unless you actually _want_ people thinking we’ve lost our minds.”

Kasumi put finger to her cheek as if she were thinking, then nodded, smiling brightly.

“You're right, it's best if we talk in private. I'll see you after school then. Oh and-"

She stopped walking suddenly to bow politely, her ponytail falling over her shoulder as she did so.

“Thank you very much for saving me yesterday!”

Goro attempted a smile, but it came out as more of a grimace as he looked around to make sure no-one was paying attention to the scene. Rumours circulating about him and Kasumi wouldn't be good for either of them. Luckily, he only noticed a few students giving them slightly odd looks.

“Whatever.” He grunted under his breath in response. Kasumi seemed happy enough with it though and turned to head in the opposite direction.

Goro sighed and kept walking. Hopefully Sakura-san wouldn't care if he was home late; though he was already in trouble with him after missing half the day yesterday so he doubted it could get much worse. He wouldn’t push his luck though; he knew better than anyone that adult's patience only lasted for so long and if he got kicked out, he had nowhere to go. It was lucky enough that one of his social workers had managed to get Sakura-san to agree to take him in, he wasn't looking to end up alone in Tokyo for real.

“Oh, look who it is.”

Goro stopped in his tracks instantly, which was good because he was just about to walk directly into Ren Amamiya, the second year who was apparently _stalking him._ God, how many people was he going to run into before he made it to class?

The first thing that had struck Goro about Amamiya when they met for the first time was how irritatingly perfect he seemed to be. And not in a complimentary way, even if he was definitely attractive. Goro couldn’t be expected to deny the fact that Amamiya had a very pretty face, he was only human after all. But, going off the few times they had run into each other, Amamiya seemed perfect in a way that Goro could only describe as manufactured. His hair was messy, but in a way that was so effortlessly attractive that it _must_ have been intentional. His uniform was pristine and his glasses, which on all accounts should have looked incredibly fucking dorky, framed his face in a way that made him look intellectual, yet approachable. He had a charming personality, but he sounded like a different person with every student Goro overheard him talking to in the halls, almost as if he was tailoring himself to fit the needs of every person he met. He must not have figured Goro out yet, because all he had done so far was fucking tease him. …Or maybe he had figured Goro all figured out and was trying to appeal to his competitive side. He couldn’t tell.

Goro had gotten very good at reading people very quickly. He had _had_ to do so if he wanted to protect himself in this world. Yet Amamiya was a complete mystery to him. He could tell there was something behind that smirk he wore, but he had yet to decipher what.

It both intrigued him and terrified him. If he had his way, then he would have nothing to do with Ren Amamiya.

Goro only realised he was scowling at the boy when Amamiya let out a surprised laugh.

“Wow, someone’s grumpy today. Wake up on the wrong side of the bed?”

Goro's eyes narrowed, but he forced a smile. It probably looked more menacing than polite, but whatever, who cared what Amamiya thought.

“Oh, my apologies. I wasn't aware my mood was any of your business.”

“It is if you're going to glare at me like that. You know I don't remember kicking any puppies today, but that's the only thing I can think of to make you look that pissed with me.”

Goro gritted his teeth.

“Can I just. Get to class. Please.”

He tacked the please on at the end like an afterthought. Amamiya smirked, looking like he was about to say something else, but God smiled upon Goro for once in his life as Amamiya's attention was lured away from him by some blonde punk waving him over. He held up a finger to say he'd be over in a minute then turned back to Goro.

“Yeah, sure. I'll let you get to class.”

“Thank you.” Goro grumbled, and stepped forward to shove his way past Amamiya. Amamiya _graciously_ moved to let him past, but he wouldn’t have needed to if he hadn’t been in the way in the first place so Goro couldn’t find it in himself to thank him again.

“Hey Akechi-san-"

“ _What._ ”

He turned to face Amamiya again, who was looking weirdly sheepish for some reason.

“Do you like coffee? We should get coffee sometime.”

...

He turned right back around, pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing deeply. God help him, he couldn't understand this guy for the life of him.

“I'm going to class.”

As he walked off, he could swear he heard Amamiya mumble:

“Well, it wasn't a no...”

**__________**

He managed to get to the roof after school without bumping into anyone, much to his relief.

Kasumi hadn't arrived yet, so he lit a cigarette to smoke while he waited. It was a bad habit, he was trying to drop it, but fuck it had been an especially stressful few days of his already overly stressful life. He could afford to have a sneaky smoke.

As he took a long drag, he found himself thinking about the day before.

_I am thou._

_Thou art I._

Those strange powers...

...Robin Hood.

And that faint voice he had heard in the back of his head just before he called Robin Hood's name; too deep to be spoken by the same being, but just as unfamiliar.

If Kasumi hadn't been there with him, he would have been convinced he was hallucinating all of it. He still _wasn’t_ convinced they hadn’t _both_ been hallucinating. Although even his weirdo brain wasn't fucked enough to conjure up the image of a man he would later find out was their gym teacher in speedos and a crown. No, that was almost too surreal to have been a dream.

He didn’t really know what to think of the whole experience, if he was honest. It wasn’t how he had expected his first day of school to go, and quite honestly, he could have done without the stress. However, he couldn't deny that when he ripped that red visor...thing off his face, he had felt more powerful than he ever had in his life. It was freeing, like nothing he had ever felt, to not be powerless. To want nothing more than to get that fucking creep _away_ _from Kasumi_ , and actually be able to do that.

Robin Hood had called him Hero. He didn't know what to make of that.

And then there was that weird dream he had had that night. He had been stood in a courtroom, where everything was coloured the same shade of blue. The room was deathly quiet, quiet enough that he heard the flap of the butterfly's wings before he saw it fly past his face. The echo of...something passed through his mind for a brief second, but he couldn't make it out and the silence returned swiftly. He was stood in place of the defendant, staring at the judge’s bench with his hands cuffed behind his back. But there was no judge there. Or anyone else. He was all alone in an empty courtroom, with nothing but the butterfly and the sound of his own heartbeat for company. 

Yeah, he didn't really know what to think of that either.

He stubbed out the end of his cigarette just as Kasumi slipped through the door to the roof, looking nervous. She instantly perked up seeing him, which Goro found baffling. People didn’t tend to be thrilled to see him.

“I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting!”

She briefly glanced at the table he was sat on, then settled for sitting on one of the chairs that were left around. Goro shrugged.

“Whatever. You wanted to talk?”

“Yes!” She clapped her hands together and smiled. “First of all, I really want to thank you again! I truly don't know what would have happened if you hadn’t been there to rescue me…”

Goro knows what would have happened, but the thought made him see red, so he pushed it to the back of his mind. He waved her off awkwardly. Comments like that made him uncomfortable, if only because some traitorous part of his heart swelled involuntarily at even the slightest hint of praise. It was shameful; he wasn't a fucking golden retriever, the simplest of thanks shouldn't _do_ that to him.

“It’s fine. It was all down to luck anyway, so you should stop thanking me. I assume that wasn't all you wanted to say?”

Kasumi shook her head, then leaned forwards with her hands on her knees, looking very intense all of a sudden.

“I want to go back to that castle.”

Goro stared at her.

“I need to know if it was real or not. Because if it was, then I simply cannot stand by when Mr Kamoshida is clearly doing something awful. I understand if you won't go with me, I will go alone if I have to, but you have those powers and I think they would be really helpful for-"

“Absolutely not.”

His tone was stern, causing Kasumi to deflate, all the intensity leaving her expression. She opened her mouth, but Goro held up a hand before she could speak.

“You can't go back there alone. It's far too dangerous, you don’t have a- what did that stupid cat call it- right, Persona. You won't be able to protect yourself.”

Kasumi pouted childishly.

“I'm sure Morgana-Senpai would protect me.”

“We haven't proven that ‘ _Morgana’_ is actually on our side yet. I wouldn't put it past him to have ulterior motives.”

Kasumi quietened for a few seconds, looking disappointed, before she mumbled:

“I can't just leave it alone, Senpai. Something is really wrong.”

Goro sighed deeply. He ran a hand through his hair, and looked anywhere but at Kasumi as he said:

“I know. I'm saying I’ll accompany you.”

She blinked a few times, before breaking out into a wide grin. She moved in a way that made Goro briefly worry that she was about to _hug_ him, before seeming to decide against it. She probably noticed how he bristled immediately at the slightest hint, which was good because he probably would have reacted badly.

In fact, he was fairly sure he bit the last person who tried to hug him, though granted that was several years ago. He would like to think he wouldn't bite Kasumi if she had dared to hug him. Amamiya on the other hand...well it almost definitely would never come to that. …He sincerely hoped it wouldn't come to that anyway.

“Thank you so much Senpai! With you by my side nothing could go wrong, I just know it.”

“I wouldn't quite go that far. Anyway, if you don’t mind me pointing out, there is a more pressing issue than me joining you.”

Kasumi tilted her head.

“How are we going to get back to the castle?”

“Oh! Well, I thought we could just retrace our steps! We stumbled into there by accident, it can't be too hard to find it again."

Goro's judgemental thoughts must have been apparent on his face because Kasumi briefly looked very nervous. After a second she took a deep breath, shaking her head and steeling herself. 

“Well, I think it's worth a try. Unless you have a better idea?”

Goro remained silent, which Kasumi must have taken as a confirmation that he _didn’t_ have a better idea (which was true, he wasn't an expert in magic-castle finding after all) because she looked very smug as she stood up, dusting off her skirt.

“Great! In that case, let's go!”

**___________**

Retracing their steps proved to be exactly as fruitless as Goro had assumed. They ended up wandering back and forth down the same couple of alleys for close to half an hour before Kasumi finally gave up on finding the castle that way. At least she did give up, because Goro was starting to get the feeling they looked kind of suspicious. It wasn't like there was anyone around to see them being suspicious, or at least no-one who stuck around long enough to see them pacing up and down the same alley every few minutes, so he supposed it didn’t really matter. That being said, the whole time they were walking, Goro couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched. He could feel someone's gaze burning holes into the back of his head, but every time he turned to catch their stalker in the act he was met only by an empty alleyway.

Goro was no stranger to paranoia; he knew the feeling intimately well, but that didn't make it any less unpleasant.

He heard Kasumi sigh dramatically next to him.

“It's a castle, how hard can it be to find...”

They were back where they started, staring at them imposing structure of Shujin Academy once again. Goro leant against a wall, humming under his breath as he tried to think of a solution to their predicament.

“We're going about this wrong. There must be something we're missing. But what...”

He put a finger to his chin in thought. Kasumi mimicked the gesture, before her face lit up. He could practically see the light bulb over her head.

“Oh! I remember I was using a maps app to find my way to school! Maybe if we follow the directions on there-"

She pulled out her phone and her face fell immediately as she tried to unlock it.

“Oh...it won’t turn on again. I'm really sorry, I thought I had something then-"

He waved her off before she could continue.

“It's fine, it probably wouldn't have worked anyway.”

Saying that, he still pulled out his phone to check his own maps app. His own phone wasn’t much more functional than hers, he had had the same one for nearly three years now and it was already second hand, so it lagged a bit as he unlocked it.

It was highly unlikely that they would have any more luck using a map than they had wandering aimlessly, but it was worth a try. He wasn't one to leave a job unfinished, and they had put enough effort into finding the stupid castle by that point that he would be pretty annoyed if they couldn’t get back there after all.

Plus, Kasumi was right. Something was very wrong, and if that thing really was a representation of Mr Kamoshida... Then he couldn't very well leave that alone either.

Robin Hood's voice echoed in his head.

_Hero._

He wasn't so sure that was right. He wouldn't consider his life so far to be particularly heroic. He had seen and experienced his fair share of injustices in the past, and while each one left him more bitter than the last, he knew now there was nothing he could do about any of them. Even with Robin Hood, he was still the same throwaway child he always had been. In the scheme of things what could he really do to change the world? He would just be chewed up and spit out like everyone else that had tried before him. No, heroism was a childish fantasy, and he was under no illusion that it could represent him.

But for this one thing... If that place really was Kamoshida's heart like the cat had said, then he was exactly the kind of fucked up person that Goro had spent his whole life wishing he could do something about. If there was the smallest chance that by finding this castle then they would be able to do something to stop him hurting people, then he would not- could not- pass that up.

As he swiped to find his maps app, a different app caught his eye. It was hard not to notice the bright red eye staring at him from his screen, especially when he was absolutely sure he deleted that very same application yesterday. More than once in fact.

...

Whether it was out of curiosity or pure impulse he didn’t know, but without really thinking about it he opened the app up.

_Kamoshida. Shujin Academy. Castle._

He stared at the words on his screen in disbelief. There was no way that could be right...

“Yoshizawa-san. Come look at this.”

Kasumi looked up from where she had been trying to get her own phone to work. She walked over to him, gasping excitedly when she saw the words on his screen.

“Akechi-senpai! You did it! Now we can go in!”

Goro was about to tell her they should wait and maybe prepare before they jumped into anything, but before he could get a word in she had already yanked his phone out of his hand and pressed the ‘begin navigation' button.

And then everything went fuzzy.

Even as they were being dragged into that other world, Goro still couldn't shake the feeling of being watched.

**___________**

When the fuzzy feeling left, the pair found themselves stood in front of the very same castle they had been trapped in the previous day. Goro couldn't help but gape at the large building in front of him. A part of him truly wasn't ready to believe this was real just yet, but there it was, like something out of a particularly uncomfortable fantasy movie.

Kasumi seemed to be in a similar state of shock, until she turned to look at him and her expression quickly turned to one of delight.

“Oh, Senpai your outfit changed again!”

Goro looked over at her and realised that his vision was tinted slightly red, just as it had been during their last visit to the castle. He hadn't noticed right away, thanks to the already pinkish hue surrounding the castle, but it was apparent now that he had looked away from the castle itself.

He looked down, putting his hands to his head and feeling for the shape of the helmet he had found himself wearing last time. Sure enough, he felt the hard plastic under his glove, and could see the black and blue reject superhero spandex that apparently represented his rebellious spirit, according to the cat anyway. He never would have thought his rebellion would involve thigh high boots, but beggars couldn't be choosers he supposed.

Kasumi was still in her school clothes. He briefly wondered what her outfit might look like if she were to awaken her persona before realising that he didn't really know enough about her to make a guess. He had only met her the day before after all, and they hadn't really bothered to talk about themselves to each other just yet. He wondered if it would be mean to hope that her outfit would be just as ridiculous.

Anyway, speaking of the cat.

“Oh, you guys are back. I knew you would be.” Morgana said smugly.

The cat walked up to them in a manner that he probably thought was cool and charming, but didn’t really come across the same way as it would if it were a suave gentleman approaching them, instead a big-headed monster cat.

“Pretty stupid to come back here when you barely escaped, but I'm not surprised. You were pretty reckless last time, floppy hair.”

Goro grunted, not dignifying that with a response. Despite his helmet covering most of his hair, Morgana had immediately given him that terrible nickname when his outfit had phased out the first time they met. His outfit seemed more stable this time; he hoped Morgana wouldn't come up with an even worse one to replace it.

“Morgana-senpai, if you don't mind could you please explain what this place is? Is it the school?” Kasumi asked, touching her finger to her cheek. Morgana seemed pleased at the opportunity to flex his knowledge, and put his hands on his...hips? The anatomy of this cat-mascot was baffling to Goro. He wondered how he managed to stay stood upright with a head so disproportionate compared to his body.

“Of course, it would be ungentlemanly of me to _not_ offer an explanation.”

His voice was very childlike, but Goro couldn't help but find his tone immediately patronising. It had been east to ignore the day before; when his thoughts were clouded by the high of danger, but now he could quickly feel himself becoming irritated. If they had to put up with this cat for long, they would be having problems, he was sure of it.

“Yes, it is the school. Sort of. It exists in the same place as the school, but it's actually how the ruler of this place sees the school. Like I told you yesterday, this is called a palace. It's a product of the ruler’s- Kamoshida, I think he called himself- distorted cognition. It's his desires made manifest!”

Despite his immediate dislike of the cat, Goro's curiosity got the better of him quickly.

“Distorted cognition?” he asked, tilting his head in thought. “So, what you're saying is Kamoshida sees himself as the king of the school, and that's why this place looks like a castle? How despicable.”

If Morgana had eyebrows to raise, he probably would have raised them.

“Oooh, correct! I knew you were something special, floppy hair. I'll make a great phantom thief out of you yet-" He abruptly stopped talking and started looking around him curiously. “Hold on- Did you bring someone with you? I can sense someone else-“

Goro and Kasumi shared a look, and suddenly the feeling of being watched returned, but this time it was ten-fold. Morgana was right, he could feel it deep in his bones, there was another presence there.

“Whoops, looks like you caught me.”

He immediately pivoted around, ready to tell Kasumi to get behind him, when he realised what he was looking at.

_No._

In front of him was a boy about his age, with messy black hair and a white owlish looking mask. He was wearing a long, dramatic black tailcoat, _heels,_ and bright red gloves that he pulled at the ends of as he walked towards them from where he was presumably hiding behind the castle wall. Anyone would say he looked like the perfect image of a gentleman thief, but that was not what was on Goro’s mind as he looked at him.

The other boy stared Goro right in the eye, a shit-eating grin spreading across his face.

_Fuck no._

“Amamiya-senpai?” Kasumi squeaked, before blushing and covering her mouth with her hand.

_God fucking damn it, NO._

Amamiya gave her a short wave.

“Yoshizawa-san, hello.” He turned his attention back to Goro. Goro's face reddened slightly as he was given a once-over, judgement plain on Amamiya's face. “...Hello Akechi-san. Nice outfit. I wouldn’t have thought Featherman cosplay would suit you, but here we are!”

_Oh, for fucks sake._

_This was the last thing he needed._


End file.
